ACTION Apartment Association

2022 Annual General Rent Adjustment

05/18/2022 9:21 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

2022 Annual General Rent Adjustment Percentage Will Be 6% Subject to a $140 ceiling, to be considered at its June 9th meeting, which would apply to all units with MARs of $2,325 and above.

Thanks to Wes Wellman for watching the Rent Bored Meeting for us.

More to follow

Housing & Schools Transfer Tax Petition

05/18/2022 9:20 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Letter to the Editor

We can see that traditional Santa Monica property taxes, that fund almost everything the city does for us, will collapse as a result of this transfer tax. This will wreck city services that current residents depend on (Schools, police, fire, libraries etc)

This property tax collapse will be caused by owners delaying home sales and thus delaying property tax basis repricing, and replacing tax paying buildings with (non property tax paying) affordable housing.

80 homeless individuals have moved up the City’s affordable housing waitlist

05/18/2022 9:10 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Homeless individuals in Santa Monica with access to Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHV) have been given priority access to the City’s affordable housing system, second only to Santa Monica residents who are facing no fault evictions.

The addition of voucher-holders reorders the wait list for the City’s limited affordable housing supply to those facing eviction, EHV holders, Right to Return participants and individuals who live or work here.

Santa Monica Approves $200K To Help Renters At Risk Of Eviction

05/17/2022 10:53 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The Santa Monica City Council Wednesday approved up to $200,000 for expanded legal and support services to Santa Monica renters at risk of eviction, and endorsed a number of new potential investments to address the homelessness crisis.

Sign the Mayor Sue NO Confidence Petition

05/16/2022 9:52 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

See the petition at: https://www.change.org/p/vote-of-no-confidence-in-santa-monica-mayor-sue-himmelrich?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=d4764290-d0b9-11ec-8a77-1be5d59a89a0

Say NO to Mayor Sue's Transfer Tax Initiative

05/16/2022 9:49 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AODjoKYTOTQ

Rent Control Board Commissioner Nicole Phillis Resigns

05/14/2022 4:21 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Rent Control Board Commissioner Nicole Phillis announced Thursday evening that she was resigning her position on the Rent Control board. Apparently Phillis is moving away from Santa Monica, and that is a requirement for her to sit on the board.

A Single Morning Snapshot of Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade Shows City Leadership Dysfunction

05/14/2022 4:20 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

After watching a vagrant defecate in front of him, the tenant prospect stated he no longer would consider Santa Monica, 'that he didn't want to be in or part of a city whose leadership allows this.'

Rent Board Meeting

05/13/2022 1:22 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

As reported by Wes Wellman

Noteworthy Night at Santa Monica’s Rent Board

Announced that the 2022 annual general rent adjustment percentage will be 6%, subject to a $140 ceiling, to be considered at its June 9^th meeting, which would apply to all units with MARs of $2,325 and above.
Staff recommended that the Board, at its June 9^th meeting either:
- increase the registration fee to $228 with a pass through to tenants of $9.50 per month, which is a $1.25 increase from the current pass-through of $8.25, or
- increase the registration fee to $222 per unit with a pass-through to tenants of $9.25 per month
Commissioner Nicole Phillips resigned due to an apparent move to a new home in Los Angeles. She encouraged the Board not to nominate a successor prior to the November election to avoid favoring “inside baseball” players over more grass roots candidates. Put your money on “inside baseball” prevailing.
SMRR leaders gave public testimony encouraging the Board to formulate a plan for a ballot initiative to limit rent increases in crisis times. SMRR politburo members blamed inflation on the war in Ukraine and supply chain disruptions and further maintained that price increases were limited to items not required by apartment owners to maintain buildings such as increases in the cost of food. They did not address cost increases in insurance, utilities. building supplies, and service worker costs. They are unlikely to be awarded a Nobel Prize in Economics.
As directed, the Board voted to form a subcommittee to work with City Council staff to craft, for Council consideration, a November ballot initiative to allow the Board to depart from automatic rent increases now imposed by the Rent Control Charter.

Affordable Home Ownership in Santa Monica - Not Affordable Renting

05/13/2022 1:06 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The city currently plans to build these as affordable apartments to rent, which would be utterly disastrous, both for the occupants of the affordable housing, and existing city residents.

But if the homes were built as deed-restricted affordable condos for sale we would avoid the negative financial impacts on existing residents and the social/economic harm on the residents of the affordable housing themselves.